‘Game of Thrones’ Season 4 Finale, ‘The Children’: TV Recap

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale, ‘The Children’

HBO

I imagine “Game of Thrones” show runners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff cackled when they realized their season four finale, “The Children,” would air on Father’s Day. Or they planned it that way. Regardless, their audience undoubtedly welcomed this messy bit of patricide, as Tyrion Lannister shot not one but two crossbow bolts into his father. The Old Lion was left to bleed out in the privy as Tyrion escaped with the help of Varys who immediately sealed him in a box and loaded the heir to Casterly Rock onto a ship bound for anywhere else. “Game of Thrones” offers few moments to cheer – remember “The Mountain and the Viper” – so when justice is dispensed, relish it.

Last year, the Red Wedding was the actual conclusion to season three. So it was understandable that the season three finale felt anticlimactic. Not so for season four. Tonight’s episode was the best of the season, and a seismic and satisfying conclusion to a show that keeps getting better.

Kit Harington and Ciaran Hinds in ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale ‘The Children’

Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO

The opening picked up right where last week left off, with Jon Snow walking into the woods to confront and kill Mance Rayder. We got the first of several beautiful aerial shots as Jon traversed the bloody battlefield, the fallen wildlings looking like squashed bugs. In Mance’s tent, he and Jon drink to their dead: Grenn, Ygritte, and Mag the Mighty. Mance doesn’t trust Jon, but he needs him. His people must get over the Wall. His war isn’t about plunder or raiding or revenge: It’s about safety. Winter is coming, and with it comes White Walkers. But then a battle horn sounds and a massive army plows into the encampment. Attacking from the south and the east, the fresh army of Stannis Baratheon – paid in full with money from the Iron Bank of Braavos – cuts down the army of free men. Sick of bloodshed, Mance surrenders. Stannis and Davos arrive and on the recommendation of Jon Snow spare Mance Rayder, for now. Back at Castle Black, Jon and the men of the Night’s Watch burn their dead – lest they become zombies, of course – and Jon takes Ygritte out into the forest to burn her body in the “real north.”

Struan Rodger as Three-Eyed Raven in ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale ‘The Children’

Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO

Elsewhere in the North, the typically boring Bran story lurched uncontrollably into some seriously high fantasy just as their small troupe arrived at Jojen Reed’s mystical weirwood. As it turns out, all I really wanted this season was a skeleton fight. We’ve seen dragons and giants and frost zombies, but the show became even more magical with the appearance of a protective-spell-casting Child of the Forest. Jojen Reed is killed, but Bran and the rest run into a cave beneath the roots of the tree. Inside they find a gnarled old man sitting on a throne of roots – this is the prophetic Three-Eyed Raven that’s haunted Bran since the beginning. The old man says he can’t fix Bran’s legs, but that he can teach him to fly.

Down south near the Eyrie, Brienne and Poderick – who have had next-to-nothing to do this season except walk to this very spot – accidentally stumble upon a muddy pair of travelers: Poderick knows it’s the Hound, Brienne knows it’s Arya. The Lady of Tarth tries to convince Arya to abandon the Hound and come with her and Pod, that they can keep her safe. And then the Hound issues a concise summary of the series as a whole: There is no safe. It doesn’t exist for anyone in Westeros. There was no safe for Ned, Robb, Cat, and Joffrey and there will never be safety for Arya. And that’s why he’s protecting her. But Brienne won’t back down and the two of them get into a long, messy, horrible fight that ends with faces smashed, ears bitten off and the Hound rolling down a ravine.

Rory McCann and Maisie Williams as The Hound and Arya Stark in ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale ‘The Children’

Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO

Arya avoids Brienne and Pod and comes to the Hound’s aid…except not really. Sandor Clegane begs for death, for a quick Needle to the heart. He goads her with violent memories of Micah the butcher’s boy, and, near tears, comes close to begging. But Arya refuses to add him to her list, and leaves him there with a broken body, alone.

Back in King’s Landing, Cersei instructs one of her not-quite-a-Maester witch doctors to work weird science on the dying Ser Gregor Clegane. As it turns out, before having his head smashed like a melon, the Red Viper poisoned the tip of the spear he repeatedly stabbed into the Mountain. The creepy mad doctor promises Cersei he’ll fix the Mountain, though he’ll be somewhat…changed. Emboldened by her recent victories – Tyrion is set to die after all – Cersei goes to Tywin and tries to argue her way out of a marriage to Loras. She doesn’t want to leave King’s Landing and, more importantly, she won’t leave her son Tommen to the corrupting influences of Tywin and Margaery. She even admits the truth to Tywin: Tommen, like all her children, are hers and Jaime’s. Tywin didn’t see it then, and won’t see it now. He’s the ultimate absent father, consumed with his family, completely uninterested in his children. Cersei then leaves and finds Jaime and commits herself to him, which he happily accepts, shoving away the book of the Kingsguard in the process.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister in ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale ‘The Children’

Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO

Across the Narrow Sea in Mereen, Danaerys is still grappling with the realization that she can’t control her dragons. It started with a goat, but this time a peasant brings the charred bones of his daughter, burnt alive by the massive Drogon. In a beautiful moment to end her season’s story, we watch as Danaerys, the Breaker of Chains, lures the two smaller dragons into Mereen’s catacombs and delicately fastens metal collars to their necks. Last season ended with Danaerys carried high on a sea of freed slave. This season ended with the Mother of Dragons putting her children in chains.

And, finally, Tyrion. I grumbled a bit that this season was Tyrion-light. It made sense for the story, but “Game of Thrones” suffers when Tyrion and his quips are absent for too long. Everything feels too medieval. But Jaime eventually arrives to release him and the two have one last brotherly embrace. But before he escapes, Tyrion’s curiosity gets the better of him. He creeps into the Tower of the Hand where he finds Shae lying in his father’s bed. He attacks her and crushes her neck with her golden chain and whispers “I’m sorry” as she dies. Then Tyrion takes the crossbow, surprises his father, ignores the old man’s silver tongue, and kills him. With the help of Varys, Tyrion is stuffed in a box and the two of them make their escape.

And just when you think you’ve heard every possible variation on the opening credits theme music- 8-Bit, New Orleans jazz, and even James Brown – tonight’s finale ended with a blissful choral rendition as Arya Stark boarded her own a ship and sailed off to Braavos. Jaqen H’Gar’s promise was legit: Show the iron coin and say the words, “valar morghulis,” all men must die. And then the music morphed again, adding a pirate-y stomp and heralding what may be the next swashbuckling hero on “Game of Thrones.”

If the show turns into nothing else but a “Road to…” series with Arya and Tyrion, I’m cool with that.

Thank you for reading. Until next year…Leave a comment or find me on Twitter: @MarshallCrook

This article has been updated from its original version.

Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister in ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale ‘The Children’

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